RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

The rest of the meat looked pretty good, but this was the first one he cleaned and the first fillets from one I've seen since Duane's demo at Bass Pro last year, so I wasn't too sure. Maybe we'll try the next one.

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

The red meat that runs down the lateral line of the fish is not worth eating. Yuck. Sometimes male bighead carp, and usually male silver carp, can have a redder-looking "white" meat that is OK to eat. This gets worse when they are spawning. I think I can tell the difference between males and females by flavor, but maybe I am fooling myself and it is only the color (males a bit darker, even when cooked). Whatever, the difference in flavor is not extreme, between males and females.

For the fish that are losing weight, there is a lot less meat in general - lots of bones and not much meat, and what meat there is, is not very appetizing. If you get a bighead carp that looks like a tadpole, all head and no body, it is probably not very good to eat. If you can see the edges of the skull, and the meat looks concave behind the skull, it is WAY too far gone. The flesh gets nasty long before that happens.

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

I'm wondering how long it would take them to return to good flesh/taste if they found adequate food...

Obviously the muscle quality and masswould heal. Would the taste stay bad????

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

Icould not sayabsolutely for sure, but my guess is that a fish that recovers would recover in flavoras well. I doubt you could tell that a fish had gone through a"roughpatch" by flavor. But I could not say for sure.

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

Some friends of mine just went out in MO bowfishing. They posted this picture in another forum.

How's this for a skinny bighead?

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

wow either thats a fish stick or one of those super model fish

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

"Supermodel fish" LOL now that's funny.

Unfortunately what's causing it and what it means to our native fish, isn't funny at all.

RE: Flesh quality decline in bighead and silver carp
 

Yeah, that's what it is coming to around here. Illinois fish are a bit better off - but getting worse. I got a tubfull of silvers on Friday, but I did not even get my filet knife out. I did take some of the guts and use them for limb line bait, and caught some catfish, so we had fish to eat.

(Don't usually use the filet knife for the catfish)